Lire Ersado

Lire Ersado is a Senior Economist with the Human Development Unit of the Middle East and North Africa Region (MNA), the World Bank. Currently he manages social protection analytical and lending activities and policy dialogue in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. Previously, Lire was with the Human Development Economics group in the Europe and Central Asia Region (ECA), where he led regional and programmatic poverty monitoring and statistical capacity building for South Caucasus countries and Bulgaria, and the social protection sector policy dialogue and lending operations in Armenia. Prior to joining the World Bank, Lire, an Ethiopian national, was a postdoctoral fellow at International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and has taught at Alemaya University. His areas of research and publications include: poverty and inequality; social safety nets; education and labor; and agriculture and rural development. Lire’s work has been published in several journals, such as World Development, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Journal of Development Studies, and Economic Development and Cultural Change. Lire holds a Ph.D. in economics from Virginia Tech.